Lindsey Graham sold his soul to the devil, and for what?

 

As could be predicted, reaction to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex interview, which aired in the UK yesterday, was all over the map, while the Palace offered a subdued commentary. Here, right-wing Jewish commentator Ben Shapiro charged Meghan Markle with “lying” about experiencing racism in the royal firm and from the press, but what does he know? He self-servingly whines about anti-Semitism in this country, even though he acts exactly as we would expect a white nationalist to act—especially one who thinks that he knows more about racism than someone of a different shade or “ethnicity” who is forced to just accept it as a fact of life and “get over it” like Meghan was expected to. After all, she only has to live by the “rules” her “superiors” contrived to keep themselves, well, “superior.”

Anyways, there was another interview on Sunday that caught some people’s attention: an Axios session with Sen. Lindsey Graham on HBO. Interviewer Jonathan Swan tried to force Graham to admit that Donald Trump’s authoritarian, fascist impulses had created a dangerous world that few sensible people recognized as reality. Graham insisted that despite Trump’s “dark side” and potential to “destroy” the Republican Party, there was still a lot of “energy” and “magic” to harness from him if properly “managed.”

What does Graham mean by this? Swan pointed out that Trump continues to insist that he won the election by a “landslide,” which clearly indicates a megalomaniacal, delusional side of him that is dangerous to democracy. Graham claimed that he has tried to “explain” to Trump the reasons why he actually lost certain states, like Arizona, where he pointed out that many voters were put off by his attacks on a “dead man,” John McCain. But does Graham actually believe that someone who has spent his whole life lording over his “business” empire like a tin-pot dictator, cheating and swindling people, and finding ways to skirt the law, is the kind of “leader” that this country can tolerate for very long? Are there really people who believe that Trump’s brand of “morality” and “ethics” is the kind of thing that will make this country “great” again? Apparently, yes.

But as Graham would have it, the Republican Party can safely morph into the Trumpist/Fascist Party so long as that “wave” serves the purpose of far-right, nationalist, nativist and racist policies. Graham clearly has no clue where Trumpism/fascism is taking this country, since it can’t be safely “harnessed”; once unleashed fully it can only lead to the country imploding on itself. The only way it can be “controlled” is by its destruction. Republican still sees “uses” for it, since it “harnesses” the “dark side” of the “forces” within the Republican base which sees everything through the prism of race and xenophobia, although there are a few minorities for whom Trump’s “tough guy” energy and disregard for rules gives them license to be the same.  The only way to stop this is through the ballot box, perhaps with the need for more evidence of the danger of insurrectionist thuggery, like we saw in January.

Graham actually thinks of Trump as a mixture of Jesse Helms, Ronald Reagan and P.T. Barnum. Interesting “choices,” since Graham doesn’t seem to recall that Helms was a segregationist and white supremacist; perhaps it was only unwittingly that he seems to have accurately captured part of Trump’s “essence” and the true nature of his appeal to much of the Republican “base.” I don’t think anyone—especially “traditional” Republicans—think that a comparison to Reagan makes much sense. Sure, Reagan’s policies on many issues were difficult for the “left” to stomach, but he was a “traditional” politician who tried to work within the system (except when it came to arming the Contras from the proceeds of weapons sales to Iran), and he was definitely much more active in international affairs; when I was in West Germany, I recall the front page of an issue of Stern magazine with a picture of Reagan with a rifle and a “steel pot” on his head, peering over a fox hole, playing “cowboy.” The Barnum reference would imply that Trump is also a “showman,” as his rallies would suggest. But do we want a carnival barker who enjoys putting “freaks” on display for the “amusement” of ignorant bigots as an “example” of leadership in a supposedly “civilized” country? I don’t think so.

But Graham and short-sighted people like him seem to thinks so. In his Rolling Stone piece last year, Mark Binelli profiled a man who has clearly “lost his way” and has compromised on so many of his principles just to be “friends” with Trump that he has no principles left. In doing so, the formerly affable “consensus builder” Graham has chosen to stab his “friends” on both sides of the aisle in the back, including his deceased mentor, McCain, and Joe Biden. McCain’s 2008 campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, likened Graham as someone would see his best friend punched in the face in a bar fight, and instead of helping him, he would be “the guy who runs out the door.” Except, of course, if his name is Trump, and Trump was the one who did the punching. A former South Carolina law partner, Larry Brandt, recalled how where once he and Graham would laugh about the “little boy,” now Graham would tell him that he would sell his own mother to keep his job—if that meant kowtowing to Trump and his fanatical “base.”

Binelli noted that

Perhaps early on, Graham thought he could work Trump with flattery. The new president must have certainly made a tempting target for anyone skilled at manipulation. If you could stomach sucking up to the guy, ignore all but the very worst of his racism, bullying, and vulgarity, and then whisper your own policy preferences in his ear, details of which he would have zero interest in, other than how they might represent a “win” for him—well, maybe his cult of personality could be used to advance sensible conservative goals. That would be a charitable reading of what I’ll call the Paul Ryan Approach, and approach that Graham, who’d never stopped hammering Trump during the campaign, quickly adopted…Steven Bannon describes Graham as the “best salesman around,” saying that Trump “loves Graham. Graham can sell him anything.”

That, of course, turned out to be a complete fantasy; it was Graham who was the one easily manipulated. The first “test” of this approach, to convince Trump to support a bi-partisan deal on DACA, was a miserable failure. Trump wasn’t listening to Graham about people from “shithole” countries—he was listening to his own racist demons, which were supported by Stephen Miller and John Kelly. Although Trump was very appreciative of Graham’s efforts to fill judgeships and Supreme Court vacancies with the “reliably” right-wing, Graham has been reduced to nothing more that Trump’s toady and lapdog. Trump wouldn’t give Graham the time of day unless he was.

Graham might not realize this yet, but history will likely judge him only slightly less harshly than Trump, whose actions can be seen as merely that of a man-child's juvenile, vindictive urge for "retribution" against those he formerly called his "friends" but were no longer "friendly" with him; Graham will be seen as a man who sold his soul to the devil, and for nothing.